Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1887-04-09
RELIGIOUS CORRESPONDENCE.
To the MINING JOURNAL.

To the MINING JOURNAL.
Was exceedingly complimented by
that notice in the pulpit Of the Meth
odist Episcopal church of the United
States of America and of the world,
1891, &c.
1t reminded me of a sermon | once
read, preached A. NJ. 1865, by one OF
the sons Of Methuselah just before the
flood. Tert-vii chap, 4th vs., Book Of
Noah!
And Elohim said unto mc-Thc end OF
all flesh is come before me; for the earth is
filled with violence through them and be-
hold | will destroy them from the earth.
After giving the history of the text
and urging his congregation to high
life, the preacher said:
There are so many achievements in the
material, mental and moral world it cannot
be that we are degenerating, and much less
that we are already so degenerated that there
is any danger of the Judgment coming upon
us which my nephew, Noah has been warm
ing the people for about hundred years.
This glorious 18th century in which we
live, exceeds the sixteen centuries preceding.
Accustomed as we are to the comforts of this
age we wonder how those before us got along
without them 1t is within the memory of
many that our father Adam narrated to them
how he first dressed in SKINS of beasts; that
for long time he and his eldest children
had no houses to live in, but lived in the
brush and hedges and swamps; that they had
no weapons but clubs; that their fingers
were their knives and forks; that they had
no instruments for tilling the ground, and
when they gathered a little grain they had TO
grind it by pounding it with a stone that
they made their axes and saws out of stones
and their combs and needles out of bones;
that they lad no marriage ceremonies then !;
that their first houses were make of mud
and clay, and after that they dwelt in tents.
But they made rapid and wonderful improve
ment Behold the results! Look at our vast
agricultural districts in every land look how
by following the coast and river courses and
the valleys everywhere we have driven the
Wild beast before us and shown that man is
the lord of crcatiOn.-GHyot. Look at our
mineral, educational and ship building inter
estS. So great has been our progress in ne
chanics we are building vessels of such di-
mCnsions that we shall yet be able to coloni2e
whole districts at once. There is that ark
which my nephew, Noah, is building, at a"
expense that will, fear, ruin his whole
family, land all because he thinks the race
Of man is to be swept Off the earth by hood)
is an illustration of the progress we have
nla,,e in the arts and sciences. 1t is $1,000
tons bugilH, 547 feet long, 81 feet wide and "a
feet high. |, for one, don't believe there is
going to be any great change in human af-
fairs, and l often laugh at my nephew and
tell him that if the flood does come the ark is
so splendidly built that it will safely carry all
he can crowd into ii into the next wc'!. and
that he must let it remain where it grounds
as monument in all time to come of the
great progress we have made.
Our father Adam was not n Noble Savage,
as some believe, but was made i'll the image
of God and the Lord in person was his teach
er, and instructed him in all things which it
is possible for man ever to know. You must
remember, too, that he lived to converse with
Methuselah, my father, 2i3 years and Sc
years with Lamech; and my father Ne
thuselah, talked more than 500 years with
my nephew, Noah. So you see that the
longevity of our fathers have had no little to
do with tie progress in the material, mental
and moral affairs of mankind.-HStory.
Why, my friends, the first leaf of record,
as furnished by our father, Adam, has more
weight in the history of men than all the
folios Of the men of science and philosophers
who shall ever live in that new state that
nephew Noah is going to float his ark into
lean PaW. If there should be new world,
as he believes, and it ever becomes as far ad-
yanced as this they will owe 1t all to the
earliest and grandest revelation of the trst
principles made to our father Adam, to wit :
The existence, unity, personality and govern
ment of ElOhim, and by him to my father,
Methuselah and by him to my nephew,
Noah, including all their posterity, and it is
this which has made our history so marvellous
in imprOvements.-Geik There cannot ever
be greater triumphs of pen and pencil than
are seen to-day. But if there should be, il
would only be the outgrowth of what was
taught by our father.-Ditto, They will al